Reverse / invert a dictionary mapping

Question

Given a dictionary like so:

my_map = {\'a\': 1, \'b\': 2}

How can one invert this map to get:

inv_map = {1: \'a\', 2: \'b\'         


        

Answer 1

For instance, you have the following dictionary:

dict = {'a': 'fire', 'b': 'ice', 'c': 'fire', 'd': 'water'}

And you wanna get it in such an inverted form:

inverted_dict = {'fire': ['a', 'c'], 'ice': ['b'], 'water': ['d']}

First Solution. For inverting key-value pairs in your dictionary use a for-loop approach:

# Use this code to invert dictionaries that have non-unique values

inverted_dict = dict()
for key, value in dict.items():
    inverted_dict.setdefault(value, list()).append(key)

Second Solution. Use a dictionary comprehension approach for inversion:

# Use this code to invert dictionaries that have unique values

inverted_dict = {value: key for key, value in dict.items()}

Third Solution. Use reverting the inversion approach (relies on second solution):

# Use this code to invert dictionaries that have lists of values

dict = {value: key for key in inverted_dict for value in my_map[key]}